Toy vehicle playsets and track sets are popular among children of varied ages, and a variety of track configurations have previously been provided that include various features to add to the excitement a child experiences while playing with the toy. For instance, toy vehicle playsets and track sets have been provided having toy vehicle loading devices that sequentially load toy vehicles into a launch position, and others that include track portions that are moveable and that may change position with respect to other portions of the track during play, and that may change the position of a toy vehicle at differing locations along the track.
While some prior art configurations provide such auto-loading features, they typically require that multiple toy vehicles be provided and be pre-positioned in some aligned, stacked, or other feeding configuration that will allow the inventory of toy vehicles to be sequentially moved into a launch position as each toy vehicle is launched. It would be advantageous to provide a track set configuration in which a toy vehicle completing travel through the track set ends up automatically in alignment with a loading device, ready to be directed to a launcher when the launcher is engaged to again launch a toy vehicle through the track set.
While some of the prior art references rely upon a gravity feed construction to sequentially feed toy vehicles into a launch position as another toy vehicle is launched, others have used moveable platforms to carry one toy vehicle at a time from its storage location to a launcher. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,254,030 to Ostendorff et al. describes a rotatable turntable that moves first into alignment with a toy vehicle loader, receives a toy vehicle, and thereafter rotates into alignment with a launcher as a user manually controls a handle. The Ostendorff et al. mechanism again requires pre-loading multiple toy vehicles into the loader, and relies upon a rather complex turntable movement that must travel back and forth between multiple loaders to continuously load and launch toy vehicles. It would be advantageous to provide a track set in which a toy vehicle travelling through the set automatically returns to a loader, and that may be repeatedly returned to a launch position and automatically launched through a single, more simplistic and controlled operating movement than provided for in the prior art.
Thus, while certain prior configurations have provided changeable configurations of various toy vehicle track set elements during play, there remains an ongoing general need to provide toy vehicle track set features capable of maintaining the interest of a child and increasing the excitement and amusement they experience when playing with a toy vehicle track set. It would therefore be advantageous to provide a toy vehicle track set with unique toy vehicle paths and positioning mechanisms to further enhance the excitement and amusement offered to a child as they engage in such play.